Budget Proposal Guts EPA

President Donald Trump is proposing to cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 31 percent by eliminating a fifth of its workforce and eliminating more than 50 programs. The proposal would drop the EPA budget from $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion. If enacted, the proposal would cease funding the Clean Power Plan, a signature Obama administration effort to combat climate change. It would cut 3,200 positions, or more than 20 percent of the agency’s current workforce of about 15,000, according to the Washington Post. Funding for the massive Chesapeake Bay cleanup project, which receives $73 million each year, would be cut to zero. Funding for drinking water infrastructure would remain intact, but the agency’s scientific research would suffer massive cuts. The Washington Post says the proposal would undoubtedly hobble the EPA, leaving the work of safeguarding the nation’s water and air primarily up to local officials.